The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1887-09-29
Race Prejudice North and
SOuth.

The Georgia Legislature, by a vote
of 25 to 95, killed the famous Glenn
bill forbidding whites and blacks to
be taught in the same school. The
criticisms of the Northern press
doubtless had a good deal ofinhuence
in causing the defeat Of the measure.
1t is probable, too, that the fear that
the Courts would decide the act in
contravention of the fifteenth amend
ment of the Constitution OF the Uni
ted States cost it the votes of the
clear-headed lawyers of the Legisla-
ture. Between those who opposed
the measure from principle, those
who were led to oppose it from mo-
tives Of political policy and those who
thought it unconstitutional it was
overwhelmingly defeated, as it should
have been.
But now that the Northern newspa-
pers aided in killing an unjust meas
ure of this kind in Southern State,
will they clamor as loudly against
manifestations of color prejudice in
the North? There are plenty of To-
calities in the North where it exists.
In Ohio, the State of all others in
which the waving of the bloody shirt
is regarded as a religious duty, the
whites seem to have as much preju-
dice against the blacks as in Georgia.
The last Legislature Of Ohio re-
pealed the law compelling the main.
tenance of seperate schools for color
ed children, as the ratio OF colored
children to white was only one to for
ty. The repeal Of the law compelled
the one colored child to seek a place
among the other thirty-nine or give
up going to school at all. The thirty.
nine, or their parents for them, OBJ
jected to the one on the ground that
the thirty-nine were in danger of be,
ing contaminated or disgraced or
something by ASSOCIATION with the
one. This little leaven of color was
sufficient to create fear that the
school contingent of the whole State
was in danger of becoming colored OF
something worse. In three towns al
least disturbances have occurred and
the trouble is likely to spread. Al
Ripley the colored children have beer
rejected. At Oxford the separate
schools are maintained in defiance O.
the law, and at Yellow Springs the
schools have bee closed entirely.
This manifestation or race prejudice
has also appeared in Kansas, the State
which had its birth in the conhic
which ended in making the coloret
people the peers OF the whites before
the law. AT Fort Scott, a town O
1000 people, the colored people con
cluded to claim their rights in thi
respect, and at the opening of thu
schools a couple of weeks ago sen
their children to the white schools
only to be refused admission. Th,
courts have been appealed to an ar
certain to decide in favor of the col
ored people. So bitter is the feeling
however, on the part of the white
that they propose, if, beaten, to with
draw and leave the schools entirel,
to the blacks. This would be bitin,
: off the white nose to spite the blacl
face with a vengeance, but the YER
, threat, foolish as it is, shows how dee
the race prejudice is, even in tn
J States most noted for their abolition
, tendencies.
If sauce for the goose is sauce TO
/ the gander, indeed we submit tina
) the Republican papers should dc
nounce Republican Ohio and Kansa
for these manifestations of race pre-.
: udice as fercely as they did Demo
r cratic Georgia for proposing to do b
r law what the people of the two foI
f mer States appear to be doing contr'
| ry to law. If they do not the publ
| will be justified in the conclusion tbs
S most of the Northern outcry agaiAl
S race prejudice inthe South is ran
4, Observation-Disclosures Times.
G I'll, ~. a..